Revolutionizing Sales Operations with Assistive Field Force Automation Solution: A Case Study of Periyar Polymers
Overview
Periyar Polymers, a leading mattress manufacturer in South India, launched a new range of ultra-premium mattresses called Florid in late 2016. They began expanding their sales team first in Kerala with plans for subsequent expansion in other southern states within the next six months. To achieve the desired growth, it was particularly important for them to enable their sales team with a user-friendly Field Force Application that would help them manage the following activities:
- Scouting for new retailers and adding them to the Field Force application
- Maintaining retailer-to-distributor mapping
- Taking orders against each model at outlets
- Viewing order history
- Maintaining retailer interaction
Approach
Assistive's cloud-based Field Force Automation solution was a perfect fit for what the client was asking. All that was required was to effectively utilize available configuration options and do some minor customizations for a quick roll-out. The key activities in project execution were as follows:
- Quick implementation of the customized solution ensuring an intuitive mobile app workflow for the sales force
- All master data (existing outlets, distributor, product master, pricing data, etc.) were uploaded in the system
- Sales team were trained through web conferencing in small batches to ensure training sessions were effective and the team is comfortable using the app
- App workflow ensured adding
- User activities were closely monitored to quickly address usability issues and constraints leading to a rapid adoption of the system
- Set of reports and dashboards were developed to monitor daily sales and to get insightful information such as total visits, productive visits, sales trend by retailer, order volume by distributor, etc.
Outcome
With the successful implementation of Assistive's Field Force Automation solution, the sales team started reporting relevant data from retail outlets without any hassle, and the client could get complete visibility and insight of its sales operations across South India. The key highlights are as follows:
- Significant improvement in discipline and process compliance of the sales force
- More than 200 new retail outlets were added in the system in the first three months
- Gradual expansion happened in other southern states within five months
- Automation of a lot of daily tasks of the sales team freeing them up to focus more on sales
- Managers focusing more on course correction and strategic decisions rather than collating data over WhatsApp or E-mail
- Interactive and insightful dashboard provided complete visibility on sales team productivity, order volume, retailer database, and high-selling models.
